


Chase the Spotlight

by chellerrific



Category: Bleach
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-25
Updated: 2013-06-25
Packaged: 2017-12-16 03:28:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/857241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chellerrific/pseuds/chellerrific
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Circumstance keeps drawing them back together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chase the Spotlight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [junko](https://archiveofourown.org/users/junko/gifts).



> Spoilers through chapter 529. Feel free to read as platonic, romantic, or anything in-between.
> 
> I guess I just like writing awkward Kurosaki + shinigami guest family dinners. If this is my legacy I am okay with it.
> 
> Title is from “Unguided” by the New Pornographers, which is my Shiro-chan song.

“Is there any reason why you’re rummaging around in my brother’s closet?”

Toshiro jumped, guiltily, even though he wasn’t really doing anything wrong. He seemed like the kind of person who wasn’t used to being caught unawares, but he was in soul form and so likely hadn’t expected to be caught at all.

“He’s not here, you know,” Karin went on, probably unnecessarily.

“I know. I just came to pick something up.”

Karin came all the way into the room, looking in the open closet around him. “Please tell me those things that look like dead bodies aren’t dead bodies.”

“They’re gigai,” Toshiro explained. “Artificial bodies we use when we’re here to interact with the Living World.”

“And you keep them in my brother’s closet?”

Toshiro pointed to the shopping bags that had been crammed in there on the floor. “We keep a lot of things in your brother’s closet, but he doesn’t mind.”

There was a pause.

“Okay, he does mind, but he’s at the bottom of the pecking order, so it doesn’t count.”

Karin grinned. “‘At the bottom of the pecking order.’ I like that. That’s pretty much how it works around here too.”

“Karin? What are you doing in Ichigo’s room?” Yuzu stood in the doorway, and suddenly her eyes lit up. “Is he back? Ichigo? Ichigo!”

“No—Yuzu, he’s not back yet.” Karin felt mean saying it, and even worse at Yuzu’s expression.

“So who were you talking to? Is someone… _here_?” She twisted around, checking the corners of the room like a ghost might appear.

“Uh—yeah. This is Toshiro. Toshiro, my sister Yuzu.”

Yuzu bowed to empty air about five feet to the left of Toshiro. “Nice to meet you!”

“Uhh,” said Toshiro.

“He says nice to meet you, too.”

Yuzu beamed. “Would you like to stay for dinner?”

“Uhh.”

“He says no thank you, he has to go haunt an abandoned theme park.”

“Okay! I gotta go finish my homework before I start cooking. I just thought… anyway, it was nice meeting you, Toshiro.” Yuzu waved to a space two feet over his head, then hurried out of the room.

Karin turned back to Toshiro. “She can’t see spirits.”

“No kidding?” He raised an eyebrow at her.

“She doesn’t know about Ichigo’s… activities. I don’t want to worry her. She’s already worried about him enough without knowing what kinds of things he gets up to.”

“So you worry by yourself.”

Karin was dismissive. “It’s Ichigo. He probably couldn’t die even if he wanted to.”

Toshiro gave her a disbelieving look but wisely didn’t force the issue.

“Do you… have any siblings?” Karin asked.

Toshiro hesitated. “I have an older sister.”

“Would you ever go off like that and not tell her what you were up to?”

He scratched his head. “Well, no, all though I don’t think our situations are entirely the same.”

“It’s okay for you to say it. Ichigo’s a bum.” Karin paused. “You really haven’t heard from him?”

Toshiro shook his head. “I wish I could say I had. Say, do you think you could help me with this?” He pointed at the heap of gigai. “It figures mine is completely buried.”

“Yeah, don’t they know to put the small stuff on top?”

His head whipped around to look at her. She wiped the smirk off her face so fast he almost missed it. “Very funny. Are you going to help or not?”

They braced themselves against the sides of the closet, grabbed what parts of Toshiro’s gigai they could reach, and pulled. Karin let go and jumped out of the way in time, but Toshiro was buried in the ensuing avalanche.

“Oh, hey, it’s your subordinate with the bangin’ bod,” said Karin, prodding one of the gigai with her toe. “Having fun down there?”

Toshiro, pinned under the bangin’ bod, just sighed.

* * *

Toshiro knew he didn’t have time to dawdle. He needed to be back at the fake Karakura Town by the time Aizen got there. With four captains, their lieutenants, and Ichigo all unreachable in Hueco Mundo, the force left in the Living World really could not spare him.

Surely there was time for this, though, as long as he made it quick.

Karin and Yuzu were the only ones at the house when he got there. Yuzu was out cold on the kitchen floor, so he gently moved her to the couch in the living room.

Karin was slumped over the dining room table but stirred when he approached. This was what had worried him; he knew that the spell would be weaker the stronger the reiatsu of the target, and Karin’s was strong for a human. He didn’t think Ichigo would appreciate hearing his little sister had been up and wandering around a ghost town alone and scared. Plus if worst came to worst and the Guard fell in the Living World…

No, that wasn’t going to happen.

“Ichigo?” Karin mumbled groggily.

“Not quite,” said Toshiro.

Karin lifted her head a few inches and tried to focus her eyes. “Oh. Toshiro. I… I guess I fell asleep.”

“Yes. You should get some rest.” He laid a sleep kido on her, as strong as he dared, then caught her head before it could smack against the table.

He moved her to the couch beside Yuzu, threw a blanket over the two of them, and then hurried back to the Living World and the replica town with time to spare.

He couldn’t help but envy Ichigo a little. Karin and Yuzu were safe as long as the Guard stopped Aizen here—and they would. He wished he could lay a sleep kido on Momo and tuck her onto that couch too.

He found himself smiling slightly at the thought of what Momo’s reaction would be if he tried to do that. Momo was strong and was going to have to fight her own battles, no matter how much he hated it. Those two little girls couldn’t do that, though, and until Ichigo showed up, he’d have to do it for them. That was fine by him.

* * *

“It’s been awhile.” Karin had her back to the window, but she sensed him the moment he appeared all the same.

Toshiro held onto the window frame, unsure whether or not to step inside the room.

“Ichigo’s room is over there.”

“He couldn’t see me anyway.”

Karin finally turned to face him, her hand on her hip. Her hair was longer, but she was otherwise the same Karin. “So why’d you come?”

He hesitated. “We were worried. About Ichigo.”

“So worried none of you thought to check in for six months?”

She was angry. Toshiro had to admit, this wasn’t the reunion he’d envisioned. “It’s… complicated. None of us likes how things turned out. Showing up like everything’s the same as ever feels a bit like rubbing his nose in it.”

Karin looked thoroughly unimpressed.

“So… how is he?”

“Depressed,” she said flatly. “He denies it, but it’s obvious to anyone who knows him. He misses the life and the people he thought were his friends.”

Toshiro felt incredibly small in a way that had nothing to do with his height. “I could—”

“Don’t bother,” Karin said. “You’d just be undoing six months’ worth of healing. Maybe with enough time he’ll realize he’s better off this way.”

There was a painful pause. “Th-that charm of yours. It’s from Urahara’s Shop, isn’t it.”

“Yeah. What about it?”

“Your reiatsu is stronger than it used to be.”

Karin just gave him a look that said, “Get to the point.”

“That’s… good.”

She frowned. “Yeah, getting harassed by spirits is fantastic. Is there anything else you want?”

He blinked. “Well… no. I suppose not. It… it was nice seeing you again.”

She pointedly turned away. “Goodbye, Toshiro.” There was a finality to her words that he didn’t miss—or like at all.

He turned to go, but paused before leaping away. “I’m sorry. Truly.”

By the time she looked back at the window, he was already gone.

“Hey, Karin? Have you seen my ‘Nice Vibe’ shirt?” Ichigo called from the hallway.

“Why would I know where your shirt is?” Karin called back.

He stopped in her doorway. “I don’t know. If our laundry got mixed up or something.”

Karin looked at him. “Ichigo.” She pointed at his chest.

He glanced down to find he was wearing the very shirt he’d been asking about. “Oh. Always in the last place you look, I guess. Uh… thanks.”

Karin sighed and shook her head. Being the big brother was a lot of work.

* * *

Karin did a double take when she came downstairs and found Ichigo working in the kitchen with Yuzu. Sure, Ichigo had been a lot more chipper since he’d gotten his shinigami powers back, but this was just weird.

Karin hadn’t brought up the fact that Ichigo was a shinigami again, but of course she knew right away. She even thought she’d felt _that_ guy around the night that it happened, but he hadn’t come to see her.

Frankly, Karin wasn’t sure she liked it at all. She didn’t know that much about Soul Society—a term she’d learned from Urahara—but they clearly didn’t have Ichigo’s best interests in mind. She didn’t say any of this to Ichigo, though, because he would never have listened to her. He was too thrilled to have things back to the way they’d been.

“ _Ichigo_!” Isshin drew out the final syllable as he came thundering down the stairs. “Is our guest here yet?”

“Guest?” Alarm bells immediately went off in Karin’s head. If her weirdo father was this excited, it couldn’t be anything good.

“Not yet, but I told him to get here at six,” said Ichigo.

“But it’s 5:42!” said Isshin, pointing at the clock.

“Dad, calm down!” Yuzu said gently. “He’ll be here.”

“Why am I the only one who doesn’t know what’s going on?” Karin said, raising her voice just enough to make sure she was the loudest one talking for a minute.

“Because it’s a surprise!” said Isshin, waving his arms in the air like that explained everything.

Karin hit him in the stomach, and he crashed into the couch melodramatically, flipping it over on its back. “All of you are impossible,” she snapped.

The couch had been righted and Ichigo and Yuzu were back to working quietly in the kitchen when the doorbell rang a few minutes later.

“ _He’s here_!” Isshin bellowed, leaping to his feet.

Karin clotheslined him. “ _I’ll_ get it.”

When she opened the door, she barely had the chance to exchanged wide-eyed looks of surprise with Toshiro, standing on the other side in a gigai, before Isshin stormed past.

He grabbed Toshiro as if he were a rag doll and spun him around. “To! Shi! Ro!” he sing-songed.

“Dad! Put him down!” Karin grabbed at Isshin’s arm.

He seemed to be done with that leg of the greeting anyway, so he did as he was told, then put a hand to his head to steady himself. “Whoa. Dizzy.”

Toshiro took off his shoes and left them with the others, then came back to the dining room. “Uh. Good evening, everyone.”

Yuzu shucked her apron and dashed out of the kitchen to greet him with a bow.

“Toshiro, this is my daughter Yuzu. Yuzu, this is Toshiro, Daddy’s old subordinate!” Isshin beamed.

“Oh, we’ve met!” said Yuzu. To Toshiro she added, “You’re not as tall as I remember.”

“Daddy’s old _what_? Why is _he_ here?” Karin asked.

“Karin!” Yuzu scolded. “Don’t be so rude.”

“Sorry,” Karin said, brusquely but sincerely. “I’m just confused.”

“Dinner’s ready,” called Ichigo.

“Great! We can sit down and talk about it over food!” Yuzu said, grinning.

Which was what they did. Karin tried not to interrupt, but her mind felt like it imploded several times as Ichigo explained that old Goat Beard was a shinigami too, or had been once, or something, and what was more, he used to hold Toshiro’s current position, while Toshiro had served under him. Toshiro kept slipping and calling Isshin “Captain Shiba,” too, so, bizarrely, it all seemed to be true.

“I hate this family,” Karin moaned.

“I’m glad we could finally all sit down like this!” Isshin said. “Little Toshiro and I didn’t have the chance to talk much last time we met, did we? What a disappointment that was! I was crushed!”

“It was terrible,” Toshiro deadpanned, and his eyes met Karin’s briefly.

She was a little surprised but not unhappy he didn’t seem to hold _their_ last meeting against her. She wasn’t sorry, and she had meant everything she’d said, but she had to admit she’d missed him. Only to herself, though.

“I was always sad that all those times you came to see Ichigo you never came downstairs to say hi to me,” Isshin pouted.

“I had no idea you were here,” Toshiro said.

“Yeah, _that’s_ the reason you avoided him,” said Karin.

“Ichigo! Why didn’t you do anything about it?” Isshin demanded.

“How the hell was I supposed to know you two knew each other! You never told me anything!” Ichigo snapped.

“No fighting at the table!” Yuzu declared, bringing the fist holding her chopsticks down with a tiny bang.

“Sorry,” Isshin and Ichigo mumbled.

There was a pause, filled only with the sounds of eating.

“So, Toshiro,” said Isshin finally, “what are your intentions toward my Karin?”

Toshiro and Karin both nearly choked on their food, and even Ichigo had to reach for a drink of water. For her part, Yuzu looked politely curious.

“M-my _what_?” Toshiro stammered.

“Oh, come now! You can be honest with your old captain, can’t you? I know you came by on the day Aizen invaded the Living World! Didn’t you ever think I might have stopped by too? Imagine my surprise to find traces of your presence in the house with my darling unconscious helpless babies!”

Toshiro’s face looked a little purple. “I just wanted to make sure they stayed asleep, that’s all. During the battle! For their own safety!”

Karin wasn’t sure what they were talking about. She thought… hadn’t she seen him one last time shortly before Ichigo lost his powers? Her memory was hazy. She thought it had been a dream.

“And then there was that time last year when you came to visit Karin!” Isshin was laughing, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes, which were open and staring at Toshiro.

“ _What_?” said Yuzu and Ichigo.

“Oh, stop it!” Karin said, but she knew her face was completely red. “It’s nothing like that! We just met a few times and he was more forthcoming with information than _some_ people I could name sitting at this table.” She looked pointedly at both Isshin and Ichigo, neither of whom had the decency to at least feign sheepishness.

“To be fair, Karin, you never told _me_ anything, either,” Yuzu said.

“That was different!” Karin protested, resisting the urge to add _Traitor!_ “I was… worried… about you…”

Now Ichigo and Isshin were giving _her_ pointed looks.

She crossed her arms over her chest and _pointedly_ ignored both of them.

“Karin’s right, though,” Toshiro put in. “It’s not like that at all. We’re just friends.”

“Oh?” Isshin smiled a very sinister-looking smile. “So my little girl’s not good enough for you?”

“ _Dad_!” Karin snapped. If he’d been sitting next to her instead of across the table, she would have backhanded him.

“No, no, no,” Toshiro said, waving his hands. “I’m just not really interested in _any_ girls right now.”

“Or boys,” Ichigo added firmly, before Isshin could turn to look at him.

Isshin let out a sigh. “Very well, then.” Suddenly, he grinned and leaned forward a little. “So. How’s Rangiku?”

* * *

Ichigo was gone again. Karin supposed they were just going to have to get used to it. She didn’t have to _like_ it, though. Especially when she wondered what pieces Soul Society would leave her to pick up _this_ time.

She really wasn’t expecting to see Toshiro during that time either, but there he was one day, at her window.

“You know, it’s a little improper to just jump in a girl’s window like that,” she pointed out.

“I’m still outside. Technically. Sort of.” He paused. “Should I go?”

She shook her head. “Come in. My dad’s busy in the clinic so he probably won’t bug us.”

Toshiro stepped down onto the floor, then just sort of stood there, not as comfortable with sitting on either of the girls’ beds as he was Ichigo’s.

“What’s the matter?” Karin asked. “What did you come all the way here for?”

He shook his head. “I have to go back soon, I just needed to get away for a minute to… to catch my breath.”

Karin nodded. “Sure. I get you. You can sit down, by the way.”

He hesitated.

“Sit!”

He sat.

“Now tell me what happened. You can be vague, if you need to.”

He hesitated, but at last started speaking before she could issue another command. “I… lost something. Something that was very precious to me. Something I depended on greatly. And I’m not sure what to do or even really who I am without it.”

“When you say ‘lost’…”

“Stolen,” he corrected, then swallowed. “It was stolen from me.”

“What are the chances of getting it back?”

Toshiro shook his head. “All but non-existent.”

Karin considered. “Well, ‘all but’ isn’t ‘entirely.’ All the same, if you really think you can never get it back, then you can’t spend your time regretting the loss. If you’re not sure who you are without it, then find out. You’ve got arms, legs. You can move forward from here.”

Toshiro nodded, but he still looked disconsolate.

“I’m guessing this thing is some kind of shinigami thing?”

He nodded.

“Okay, well… is there a work-around? Something that’s maybe not a substitute, but at least would allow you to deal with whatever you needed the lost thing for?”

He looked uncertain. “It’s not that simple.”

“Of course it’s not,” she said. “If it was, you wouldn’t be here. But, let’s say you lost… your shoes. Just like that—shoes, gone. You don’t suddenly become unable to walk, right? Maybe you just put on an extra pair or two of thick socks. It’s not the same, not as good, you’d much rather have your shoes, but you can get around for the most part without cutting your foot open. Know what I mean?”

Toshiro gave her a look. “Why wouldn’t I just get another pair of shoes?”

“Can you get another one of whatever it is you lost?”

“No.”

“Then you can’t get another pair of shoes. It’s a metaphor, okay? Work with me here.”

“I guess I could… go back to basics…”

Karin nodded. “There you go. Basic socks.”

“Yeah. Basic… socks. It’s not going to be even close to the same, but… I can’t spend my time regretting the loss.”

“Someone very wise must have told you that.”

He smiled. “ _Very_ wise. Thank you, Karin. I’d better go get those socks now.”

Impulsively, she hugged him. “Good luck. I don’t know what’s going on but I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

Startled, he stiffened at her touch, then gradually relaxed into it, hugging her back. “I hope so.”

He stood and went to the window. “Ah… sorry for just dropping in like this. I was feeling a bit lost, and, well…”

Karin waved him off. “Don’t worry about it. You can drop by any time. You’re my dad’s old friend, right?”

He laughed. “Sure. We’ll go with that.” Then he leapt out the window and vanished.

Long after he was gone, Karin stood leaning out the window, letting the late spring breeze caress her face. The sun was warm, summer within spitting distance, but being near Toshiro always made her feel cold. Not in a bad way—it was bracing and made her think of opening the door on a snowy day.

Footsteps pounded on the floor, up the stairs and down the hall. “ _To—shi—ro_!” Isshin roared, skidding to a stop in her doorway.

“He’s gone, Dad,” she told him, turning away from the window.

Isshin stood there, catching his breath. “Boy! In my daughters’ room! Must! Maim!”

“Dad, you’re a doctor,” Karin pointed out. “It’s against your nature to cause harm.”

“I would sew the arm back on after I took it off!” he huffed.

Karin laid back on her bed. “Whatever. It’s not like that. We’re just friends.” She closed her eyes and smiled.


End file.
